Sunday, March 23, 2014

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In a followup story in the Journal this morning only one city elected official had any comments on the murder of the homeless man in the foothills by APD. Councillor Isaac Benton said he was concerned after seeing the video and questioned the new police chief's defense of the shooting.

Meanwhile, the public has chimed in and they are not happy. Soon, other elected officials will follow those comments with ones of their own. Showing they are followers and not leaders.

And the Mayor, all the Journal could say was that he was out of town and not available for comment. Apparently he doesn't know how to use email or cell phones.

9 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Of all the questions that must be answered regarding this shooting I have this, why was an undercover detective working a SWAT call? APD has a professional SWAT team. It contains around 15 full time SWAT only officers. They are always in their SWAT fatigues. They train together as a team and are all certified through SWAT schools.

So why was there this ROP detective in the middle of a SWAT call? APD command staff seems to have no control over their crime scenes (mary han) nor their officers. In the old days only SWAT team members would be allowed on inner perimeter and arrest team. Who with APD command allowed a non SWAT officer into the middle of this? Those in command bear as much responsibility as the detective who did the shooting. Will anyone above the detective be held accountable?

You notice that the only non lethal is Taser. Bean bag wasn't deployed until Boyd was already shot and down.

Maybe if the makers of Net Gun would have given Ray Schultz a kickback like Taser did, the officers on scene would have had other tools to bring him into custody.

This is a direct example of why Ray Schultz and the Taser contract should be investigated and criminally prosecuted. Schultz signed a $2,000,000 city contract with Taser and then two months later when Schultz started early retirement he went to work for Taser. This is in violation of City Ordinance, State and Federal Law. Boyd deserves answers to why he was killed. The answers are much deeper than just what happened at the scene. The answer to why APD does NOT have a entire supply of non lethal weapons and the Schultz kickback need to be investigated and prosecuted.

Berry has to call Susana and Jay before he does anything. Come on now it has only been 7 days since the killing, let's not rush RJ Berry into making any comments so quickly. By out town does Berry mean he is in Bernalillo? Rio Rancho? The east mountains (camping)? Maybe his cell phone doesn't get reception in his under ground bunker. Maybe he doesn't get internet way down in his hole in the ground.

There should be a mass protest on Civic Plaza demanding that Eden be fired, Berry resign, Schultz be indicted for kickbacks and the Department of Justice take over APD.

Gordon Eden's press conference, which can be seen on Channel 4 or 13 web site, was very embarrassing and outright disgusting. Eden's body language and "dry mouth" said it all. How could he pronounce in no uncertain terms that the shooting was a justified use of deadly force when there is an ongoing multi-agency investigation? Now Rob Perry is seriously back tracking with Berry conveniently out of town. Was Berry in town last Sunday when this whole thing went down? Was Berry and Perry being kept in the loop when it was happening, as they were in the Mary Han case?

During the press conference, Eden cited "case law" incorrectly that in fact covers fleeing suspects and argued the video showed things that it did not show. The video shows a lethal shot fired after the guy was giving up. Eden said the guy was going after the canine officer when he was shot. It was as if Eden did not even look at the same video or ignored how it was the cops that escalated the situation after the guy was preparing to give up when the cops fired the percussion round.

A question the press failed to ask was where was Eden and his Deputies at during the 6 hour confrontation involving SWAT? Why did not Eden nor any one of the Deputies take charge, intervene or question the escalation of use of force? Also, was a certain Deputy City Attorney at the scene giving orders to cops as has happened in the past?

The only thing the press conference did show was that Eden is a man totally in over his head and that he is a political hack that has no business being Chief of Police. It was clear he was taking "q's" from some one in the audience during the questioning period and read from a prepared text. Eden could not give informed spontaneous answers even after having 5 days to prepare. Eden was signaled to walk out before questions could be completely answered.

Berry and Perry need to admit they made a very big mistake in appointing Gordon Eden, but no doubt Sherman McCorkle thinks otherwise. What was not disclosed in the Chief selection process is that Gordon Eden has been a very close personal friend of Rob Perry's for years, to the point that Eden has been somewhat of a mentor giving Perry advice and guidance during his career. Eden was recruited to apply for the job, not because he was qualified, but more because he is a political operative within the Republican Party. Eden needs a "high 3" salary so he can retire, hence it was the money and not the service that really attracted him to the job.

And where is our Mayor? No doubt trying to figure out how he can lay the blame on others hoping this will blow over just like the Omaree Varela case.

activists used to be smart. why would you do it anywhere but city hall? It is where the decision makers are. Not at the bus stations for gods sake. this is the same leaderless thinking that the 'occupy' folks had. That is why they disappeared.

Those that go to the protest should be demanding answers from Mayor Berry instead of demonizing the police. Mayor Berry hasn't spoken out once and its been a week. Mayor Berry is responsible for the mess that Albuquerque is in and the state the police department is in. Mayor Berry hasn't showed any leadership at all like other mayors across the country do. I'm pretty disappointed that very little people showed up at the last election to vote him out. Did any of these community activists show up at the polls? I did and I voted to fire Mayor Berry. Things aren't going to change unless people demand that Mayor Berry does his job.The last decent Mayor that Albuquerque had was Jim Baca!

The protest needs to be organized on Civic Plaza, on a Monday, within the news cycle, and it needs to be large and loud. If people want a change in APD, this is something that should take priority over going to work. It should be followed by a overflow crowd at CityCouncil the same day.

About Me

Jim Baca has a strong record of visionary service to New Mexico. He retired as the State of New Mexico's Natural Resource Trustee 1n 2010. He has served as Mayor of the City of Albuquerque, as well as two prior terms as New Mexico’s elected State Land Commissioner. He served as the Director of the National Bureau of Land Management, Department of the Interior in the first Clinton Administration. Jim Baca also serves on the Boards of numerous non profit organizations including The Wilderness Society and the Wyss Foundation and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance.
Baca has run a successful public affairs consulting practice when not serving in public office. He spends his retirement playing golf, attending board meetings, and generally doing what ever he wants to do.